Are older drivers actually at higher risk of involvement in collisions resulting in deaths or non-fatal injuries among their passengers and other road users?
Open accessAbstract
Objectives: With more older drivers on the road, public concern has been expressed about their impact on traffic safety. This study revisited the question of driver age in relation to the risks of older drivers and others sharing the road with them, including pedestrians, passengers in the same vehicle, and occupants of other vehicles. Methods: Using United States federal data on fatal and non-fatal crashes, injury rates per driver were calculated for different types of road users. In addition, using data supplied by nine insurers, insurance claims per insured vehicle year were examined by driver age. The reference drivers were aged 30–59. Results: For fatal crashes, older drivers’ major impact on road users other than themselves was an increase in death rates among their passengers, who also tended to be elderly and thus more vulnerable to injuries (rate ratio (RR) for drivers aged 75+ 2.52; 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.39 to 2.66). For non-fatal crashes, drivers aged 75+ had a RR of 1.10 (95% CI 0.98 to 1.24) for involvement in collisions resulting in injuries to other passenger vehicles’ occupants compared with 30–59 year old drivers. The oldest drivers (aged 85+) had significant increases in insurance claims for injuries to other road users in crashes in which they were deemed at fault (RR 1.8; 95% CI 1.71 to 1.89). Conclusions: These findings suggest that the oldest drivers, a group with low average annual mileage, do pose some increased risks to occupants of other vehicles, and pose the most serious risks to themselves and their passengers.
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Liability claims data uniquely capture information regarding crash or injury causation contributions because collision responsibility is directly determined during the liability claims adjudication process.
“Liability claims data uniquely capture information regarding crash or injury causation contributions2 because collision responsibility is directly determined during the liability claims adjudication process [12].”
From Comparative safety performance of autonomous- and human drivers: A real-world case study of the Waymo Driver (2024) · cites this paper as [12]
The Insurance claims section (page unavailable) says bodily injury liability claims involve a driver deemed at fault and that insurance data address driver fault more directly than police-reported crashes. It does not say that responsibility is determined during claims adjudication, or establish that liability claims data uniquely capture causation contributions. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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Cites
Responsibility of drivers, by age and gender, for motor-vehicle crash deaths
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Crayton, T. J., & Meier, B. M. (2017) · Journal of Transport & Health · doi:10.1016/j.jth.2017.04.004 · Cited by 181 · see citing works
Responsibility of drivers, by age and gender, for motor-vehicle crash deaths
Williams, A. F., & Shabanova, V. I. (2003) · Journal of Safety Research · doi:10.1016/j.jsr.2003.03.001 · Cited by 153 · see citing works
Di Lillo, L., Gode, T., Zhou, X., Atzei, M., Chen, R., & Victor, T. (2024) · Heliyon · doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e34379 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Clausen, T., Martinez, P., Towers, A., Greenfield, T., & Kowal, P. (2015) · Substance Abuse: Research and Treatment · doi:10.4137/sart.s23549 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
- Authors
- Braver, E. R., & Trempel, R. E.
- Affiliations
- Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (US)
- Corresponding author
- Braver, E R
- ORCID
- Braver, E R
- Venue
- Injury Prevention
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2004-02
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 27-32
- ISSN
- 1353-8047 (ISSN-L)
- 1475-5785
- PMC
- PMC1756534
- OpenAlex
- W2166112671
- Cited by
- 182
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 23.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Injury Prevention (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation › Older Adults Driving Studies
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality › Traffic and Road Safety
- Social Sciences › Demography › Retirement, Disability, and Employment
- Keywords
- older drivers, driver age, traffic accidents, passenger injuries, occupant injury, pedestrian safety, injury rates, insurance claims, road safety
- MeSH terms
- Accidents, Traffic, Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Automobile Driving, Humans, Insurance, Accident, Middle Aged, Risk Factors, United States, Wounds and Injuries, Age Distribution
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